Heating systems that employ combustion processes to generate heat, such as boiler systems, are commonly employed in a variety of environments. Although conventional systems often can attain high levels of performance in regard to various criteria, there nevertheless are areas of performance where improvements would be desirable. For example, conventional boiler systems typically emit combustion emissions in the form of flue gas that can include levels of nitrogen monoxide/nitrogen dioxide (NOX) and, notwithstanding efforts that have been made to achieve control over the generation and emission of NOX, there remains a need for enhanced performance in this regard. Also for example, conventional boiler systems can experience contaminant buildup within the portions of the systems that communicate water or other fluid that is heated (or boiled) during operation. To minimize or avoid problems associated with such contaminant buildup, conventional boilers typically periodically (e.g., one time per day or per shift) flush out the boiler. However, such flushing operation tends to waste heat.
In view of one or more of such limitations that exist in relation to conventional heating systems such as boiler systems, it would be advantageous if one or more improvements could be achieved in relation to such boiler systems or other heating systems and related methods of operation.